cerși

Forms

cerși (third-person singular present cerșește, past participle cerșit) 4th conjugation^[1] An old variant cerșui is recorded from 1836.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a new verb from Romanian cere (“to ask”), built on the old simple perfect ⟨cerșii⟩ and participle ⟨cerșit⟩ of that verb, which continue the perfect Latin quaesīvī and participle quaesītum of quaerō (“to seek, ask”), with the /r/ of the present stem.^[2][4][5][1] These forms were used beside the modern ⟨cerui⟩ and ⟨cerut⟩ until the early 19th century; a new verb with the present ⟨cerșesc⟩ was built on them.^[4] Tiktin thought it was drawn above all from the gerund ⟨cerșind⟩.^[3] DEX and MDA2 simply derive it from the base verb.^[6][7]

The verb also exists as Istro-Romanian cerșí (“to seek, ask”).^[2] The base verb has the same Latin source, with Aromanian țer and Megleno-Romanian țer south of the Danube.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Cazanie of 1564, and DELR's 1581, both with the sense “to ask”.^[3][2] Tiktin notes two obscure perfect forms in the Codicele Voronețean, cerșitu and cerșiră, which seem to stand for cerca “to seek”.^[3] MDA2's first record, Eminescu's poems in an edition of 1895, is much later.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In old Romanian the verb meant simply “to ask”, as cere does: Nicolae Costin wrote that someone asked the Porte for a prince.^[8][7] The noun cerșetor “beggar” is recorded from about 1500, and through it the verb narrowed to asking for alms.^[2] The 1688 Bible uses the gerund cerșind in the old sense, of asking.^[9]

Today it means to beg, and figuratively to ask humbly or to beg for something, demeaning oneself: Eminescu's cerșea copilărește “he begged childishly”, a cerși voturile “to beg for votes”.^[6][8][10]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – cerșetor “beggar”.^[2]
• 1564 – cerși “to ask” in Coresi's Cazanie.^[3]
• c. 1566 – the noun cerșitură “request, plea”.^[2]
• 1574 – cerșut “request; begging”.^[2]
• 1651 – cerșire “request, plea”.^[2]
• 1688 – cerșind “asking” in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1836 – the variant cerșui.^[2]
• 1892 – the verbal noun cerșit “begging”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive and transitive) To beg, to ask for alms: Un bătrân cerșea la poarta bisericii.^[6][7]
2. (intransitive) To ask for something insistently, like a beggar; by extension, to demean oneself asking.^[6]
3. (obsolete) To ask.^[7]

Word family

• cerșetor
• cerșetori
• cerșetorie
• cerșit

Related words

• cere

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cere
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cerși
4. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cere
5. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 80
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 173
7. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 366
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 120
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 20:20
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 396